DUBLIN — In a fast-growing city such as Dublin, the candidates for City Council can’t help but talk about growth in their campaign platforms.

Four candidates are vying for two seats in November’s race. Doreen Wehrenberg is looking to keep her appointed seat while Mona Lisa Ballesteros, Melissa Hernandez Strah and Arun Goel are also seeking a seat. Councilman Kevin Hart’s seat is open because of term limits.

Two candidates are vying for the mayor’s position. Incumbent David Haubert is seeking to keep his spot while Shawn Costello is challenging him.

Ballesteros, who works as an administrative technician for the Dublin San Ramon Services District, is one of the candidates who says the city needs to slow down its growth.

“It’s really hard for us to absorb all the growth,” she said.

Ballesteros said the school system has been affected as enrollment increases and schools are reaching capacity. There are questions about whether the quality of education can be maintained, which in turn, can also affect home prices, she said. She proposes keeping the school district well-informed ahead of schedule to give officials a clear idea of when new residential development could impact the district. She also proposes reducing the density of projects.

Strah, who works as a financial administrator in the health care field, said she also wants to slow the growth of “nonvested” units in the city. Vested units are those already approved by the City Council.

“I’m not interested in any more units,” she said.

Strah said the city is going through some growing pains and needs to let the already-approved projects in the pipeline go through and finish before any more start.

“We already have enough projects going on,” she said.

Goel said he is concerned with three major issues: aligning housing issues with the city’s infrastructure, traffic and the budget deficit. Regarding housing, he said he’s for “smart growth” and, for example, making sure the city’s infrastructure of public safety is up to par with the growth of more residents.

“We have to hold our city accountable like a business,” Goel said. “We have the ability to leverage … the ability to negotiate that the appropriate amenities are there.”

Goel, who has been on the Planning Commission for more than three years, has 20 years of experience dealing with local, state and federal planning and transportation issues. He currently works for PG&E as a projects control engineer and previously worked for the Alameda County Transportation Committee and also with Alameda County Public Works as a flood control engineer. He grew up in Hayward but has lived in Dublin for 13 years.

Wehrenberg also was a planning commissioner for eight years and works in construction management for Kaiser. A 25-year Dublin resident, she said she watched as the city grew from only having a handful of retail stores to what it is today. She said growth occurred because of market forces and the improved economy.

Regarding the impact the growth has had on the school district, Wehrenberg said the school board and the city have collaborated through every decision. In the Eastern Dublin Specific Plan, for example, the plan identifies potential locations where schools can go.

“The growth has been fast. But … it’s part of what our planning was,” Wehrenberg said.

Those specific plans are outlines of what parcels in the city should be zoned for. The eastern Dublin plan for example, where most of the growth has occurred, is zoned for open space, commercial and residential.

She said one of her main focuses is adding more police and fire personnel as the city’s population continues to increase as well as to maintain and enhance Dublin businesses and encourage economic development.

Current mayor Haubert, who was also on the Dublin school board for 10 years before running for City Council, is looking to keep his seat on the dais. He said his focus will be maintaining public safety and “supporting the school board as best I can as a City Council member.”

“Dublin is two-thirds the way through a massive transformation,” he said. “We have to manage the growth as we reach build-out.”

The east Dublin plan was set forth some 20 years ago, dictating how that part of the city is being built out. With the properties left on the plan that haven’t been built yet, “We’ll scrutinize those properties pretty closely,” Haubert said.

Haubert said he’s asked for an extensive analysis of traffic patterns in the city. He said he’s heard the horror stories of Friday afternoon traffic jams. Although that may never stop, he said, the city can look into investigating the latest technology to manage traffic flow at other times during the day.

Costello, who has run many times in the past for City Council and mayor, did not respond to requests for an interview. According to past information on smartvoter.org, Costello is a disabled advocate and is an alternate on the Wheels Accessibility Advisory Committee and the consumer advisory committee for the Regional Center for the East Bay.Contact Angela Ruggiero at 510-293-2469.

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